‘The Woods’ Trailer: Something Evil From the Creators of ‘The Guest’

The official synopsis for The Woods on YouTube says simply that it is “one of the scariest movies in decades. The Woods reinvents horror with a completely fresh and terrifying take on the genre.” Well, jeez. No pressure or nothing. Just be the scariest thing anyone has seen in years and completely reinvent one of the most formulaic genres in movies. Piece of cake!

If anyone is capable of accomplishing so lofty a task, it’s the guys behind The Woods; director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett. Together, they made movies like A Horrible Way to Die, You’re Next, and The Guest. Each of their movies has improved upon the last; The Guest was a particularly effective riff on ’80s slasher films (and a better movie about the psychological impact of war than American Sniper). So while I have no idea if The Woods lives up to those insanely positive pull-quotes (“A new beginning for horror films!”), and while the movie could be bad (or even just okay), I’m just saying it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it does.

For sure, I will be there to check it out. For all the overheated prose in that trailer (not to mention a premise that looks like The Evil Dead or The Blair Witch Project or a million other horror movies) Wingard and Barrett definitely have the goods. I’m hoping they deliver another winner. The Woods opens in theaters on September 16.